This is a Multimedia Presentation Computing Device for visual and audio teaching, presentations, broadcasting, briefing, editing, playing music, video art and entertainment.
Presently the projectors being utilized are the OHP (overhead projector) and the slide projector, both of which are restricted to presenting silent, still pictures.
Due to the fact that the upkeep of these projectors and the creation of slide materials is expensive and difficult, the OHPs and slide projectors are not widely used.
On the other hand, VCRs provide us with moving pictures and audio and is easily used, but the creation, management and storage of the materials is time consuming and difficult. Furthermore the user has no control over the presentation while it is in progress.
As for the PC, it is capable of multimedia presentations but the necessity of having to connect many additional multimedia devices requires a greater level of knowledge and skill in order to connect, load and manage the devices and programs.
It is also not easy to present with the PC as it requires a great deal of preparation time and there is a high occurance of error. Another drawback is that the speaker must concentrate upon the computer instead of the audience. For these reasons people avoid the use of the PC in a presentation setting.
The reason that the PC does not provide a good multimedia presentation environment is because of the complexity of the board and cards, and the arrangement of the interface of the input and output.
The PC is very complex in that there are many upgrade ports and many cards such as a sound card, VGA card, MPEG card made in many different companies inserted at right angles causing a waste of parts, enlargement of the product size, increase of incompatibility and troubles, increase of the product cost, complexity of the interfaces and cords at the back side of the PC, inconvenience of use, and deteriorating the multimedia presentation environment.
And also the text keyboard and the mouse made for desk top use tie the speaker to the computer.
Therefore the exclusive use of the multimedia presentation computing device is required.
The intended multimedia presentation computing device overcomes the present limitations. This piece of reformed equipment, enables the user to edit, create and present easily by arranging the main input interfaces at the front side of the device; eliminates the problem of incompatibility, is decreased in size, and has lowered the product cost by unifying the board and the cards; has shortened the booting time and prevented breakdown due to viruses by installing the OS and main program onto a chip; is easily managed while presenting by the exclusive use of the controller, even apart from the device.
The proposed multimedia presentation computing device will achieve all of the above purposes by incorporating all of the merits of the above explained multimedia devices into one simple, manageable multimedia presentation device.
For the input, the following will be incorporated: disk drivers ie. CD Rom, DVD drive, ZIP disk drive, JAZZ disk drive, and hard drive; microphone for audio input; camera for visual input; text keyboard for text input; music keyboard for audio input; digitizer for visual input; VCR for visual input and visual storage; TV and radio tuner for audio and video input; and a modem for transmitting and communication. All of the above listed devices with their related parts can be connected for the purpose of unlimited information input.
The above mentioned inputted information will be controlled by the IECPU (integrated environmental central processing unit) and be outputted to the output ports or be stored to the storage devices.
To improve the device a unified main board must be created from which useless ports and parts have been removed and commonly used cards such as the sound card, VGA card, MPEG card and encoder are unified onto the main board. It must be controlled to ensure compatibility, and there will also be a spare card port.
In the case of the above mentioned spare card port it is to be fixed to the machine case and be connected, rather than be inserted at a right angle, in order to reduce the size of the machine.
The software for this device will be unique to the machine and will be developed for presentation use only. It will be loaded onto a microchip and then installed onto the board. This installation will prevent viruses and enhance the speed of the programs.
The aforementioned IECPU is controlled by a controller or xe2x80x98buttonsxe2x80x99 on the device.
For the output, the following will be incorporated: television monitor; computer monitor; LCD (liquid crystal display); beam projector; speakers and other presentation devices; storage devices and transmitting devices which are connected or installed.
The reason for including the TV monitor is that compared to a PC monitor, the TV monitor is less expensive thereby enabling the presenter to obtain a larger screen.
The proposed unified computer board has input ports for text keyboard, music keyboard, video, speakers, microphone, mouse, controller and headphones installed on the front of the machine.
Input ports and output ports which are not normally disconnected once installed will be located on the rear of the machine to increase user efficiency.
To present animation or movies, a high speed CD Rom drive or DVD drive is required.
In the above description the IECPU receives information from the input devices, processes it and then transmits it to the output devices.
The controller controls the IECPU. The controller is either attached to the device by means of a wire or is wireless.
The user controls the IECPU with the controller, and the IECPU controls the put and output. This IECPU board is not readily available but by incorporating the available devices, parts and software it is possible to create the proposed device.
The result of the processed information can be outputted by either the analogue signal or the digital signal. To achieve this an encoder function must be added to the mainboard which will convert the signals enabling the user to present the information on a TV monitor, edit or create video movies.
To adapt the device to specific purposes sensors such as heat sensors, light sensors, pressure sensors, or moisture sensors, or other input methods like cameras can be added at the input panel. These additions enable the device to be utilized in the technological and security fields.
For use in the field of education a specialized keyboard can be created. This keyboard combines a text keyboard for text input and a digitizer for graphic input.
Examples of this concept in use are a multimedia editing and presentation computer which is compatible with a VCR, a multimedia presentation computer for classroom use, a simplified multimedia presentation computer, a notebook type multimedia presentation computer, a multimedia presentation computer with a fixed monitor or beam projector,and a security system, and its boards.